Unique approach propels JGR team to owners' title (cont'd)

Saturday night in the Tuscan Ballroom at the Portofino Bay Hotel in Orlando, Fla., JGR will receive the accolades for its first championship in NASCAR's No. 2 series while Clint Bowyer will be crowned with his first NASCAR national series drivers' title.

"For the guys at the shop that have worked all year long, it would have been real frustrating to go the whole year and not have something to show for it," Gibbs said on the eve of the banquet. "Now, to be able to come down to Orlando and celebrate as a team -- we've never done that before as a Nationwide team -- that's a big deal for us.

No. 20 Victories

Race	Track	Winner
1.	Daytona	Tony Stewart
2.	California	Tony Stewart
9.	Mexico City	Kyle Busch
10.	Talladega	Tony Stewart
11.	Richmond	Denny Hamlin
12.	Darlington	Tony Stewart
16.	Kentucky	Joey Logano
18.	New Hampshire	Tony Stewart
19.	Daytona	Denny Hamlin

"We're real excited about it, and I think for our team, it meant more than, I would say, most championships mean to other teams. I mean, this was a big deal for us and for the guys that worked so hard because really, [in the] Nationwide [Series] you have guys that do a little bit of everything, and they're not so specialized. They really work their tails off."

The No. 20's impact on the 2008 series was significant. The Gibbs Camry was so strong, in conjunction with strong runs by its team car that NASCAR hit Toyota with a mid-season horsepower reduction.

Despite that, Gibbs' four drivers in the No. 20 combined for nine wins, five poles, 16 top-five and 25 top-10 finishes during the 2008 season. Logano's 10th-place finish in the Homestead-Miami Speedway finale secured Gibbs' 12-point margin over Bowyer's No. 2 Chevrolet team.

Busch, who ended up sixth in the drivers' championship despite running five fewer races than his competitors, was nonplussed by his contribution to the owners' title. But he realized its weight.

"I wasn't a significant part of it -- I only won one race in the thing," Busch said of his Mexico City road race score. "But you know, they had a great car all year long as well. For it to come down to the final race like that, it was pretty cool to see."

Busch was particularly impressed with Logano, who turned 18 in May, made his debut later that month, took the pole for his second race and won in only his third start.

Logano, who ended the season with four pole positions, including the one for his race win at Kentucky Speedway, will drive the No. 20 Sprint Cup Toyota as teammate to Busch and Hamlin and will also do a partial Nationwide schedule in the No. 18 Toyota.

Busch will try to repeat the owners' championship as well as win the drivers' crown when he runs a full season in 2009 in the No. 20.

"For Joey to run the amount of races that he ran in the car and to win the [race] that he won, I believe he did his part of the deal," Busch said. "You know, everybody that was in that car all won, and we're all a part of that deal.

"But the big pat on the back and the big support needs to go back to the guys at the shop, Dave Rogers and Jason Ratcliff, who weren't [at the track] the rest of the year, and for the rest of the guys that stepped up for the rest of the year to make that thing go fast and stay up front."

Logano echoed that.

"It's good for everyone here to win the championship because they worked really hard this year," Logano said. "It's awesome because all these guys work really hard all year to get to this point. To win it is so cool for them. They just work really hard."